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Thursday, 29 May 2014

No More Page Three

No More Page Three

A few weeks ago I attended ‘The Naked Debate’ at Plymouth
University and was lucky enough to witness Lucy Holmes, founder of the 'No More Page Three' campaign, wipe the floor with her opponents! Ably assisted
by Jessica Horner a student at Plymouth University, it was
a lively discussion. I was fascinated to watch Lucy use a technique called ‘flipping’ which I had
read about only that day. It is the art of taking a common stereotyped
presentation of women and ‘flipping’ it putting men at the centre of the image
instead. This helps to point out the absurdity of the image and adds humour
which of course is one of the best ways to tackle and subvert sexism. A
brilliant example of this is how she began by talking about ‘scrotums’. Of course
with a debate about page three you would have thought it inevitable that mention of
‘breasts’ or ‘tits’ would ensue. But Lucy ‘flipped’ this and challenged us to imagine being
confronted with ‘scrotums’ in our daily newspaper. ‘Scrotums at the family
breakfast table, scrotums on the bus, scrotums everywhere for our impressionable
young people to see’.

Her fellow debaters supporting page three, Charlie Green a student representative on the Student Union and Phil Ives writer for the university magazine did their
best to raise arguments but they really struggled! A member of the audience
suggested that the debate was uneven because the supporters of page three knew
less about the subject whereas Lucy has been campaigning for months and is more
knowledgeable. In reality, of course because the use of semi naked women in our
daily newspapers is indefensible there are no stronger arguments they could
have used!

I managed to speak to Lucy after the event and we discussed
how the whole issue can be narrowed down to equal treatment. If men and women
were treated the same the debate would change completely. I told Lucy of this
lesson I ran when I was teaching English in a Comprehensive in Milton Keynes
about 20 years ago!

I was teaching a unit of an English Language GCSE which
required us to compare and analyse broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. I was
being asked to bring in a copy of ‘The Sun’ to discuss in small mixed gender
groups 14 year old teenagers and I wasn’t happy about it! Without permission
(if anyone had found out I would have been in great trouble) I purchased a soft
porn magazine with pictures of naked men in various ‘tasteful’ poses and
suggestive positions. I removed some of the pages and placed them inside ‘The
Sun’ newspapers, I then placed them in the middle of the table and I wish I had
videoed the response. The poor lads nearly died of embarrassment. The more
confident ones in the class tried to brazen it out making jokes and the
atmosphere became very animated. The girls found it hilarious and started
laughing and there was a huge amount of nervous, uncomfortable laughter. Some
boys got angry and took the images out, trying to cover them out or get them
away. The girls got angry too and snatched the pictures back until one boy
snatched up a picture and tore it to pieces so it wasn’t visible anymore.At this stage I intervened and we then had a
brilliant discussion because we talked about how they felt. The boys admitted
to their feelings of embarrassment and insecurity because they didn’t look like
the men in the images. The girls explained that that’s how they also felt when
they saw the images plastered over newspapers and other media. It was probably
the best lesson I ever taught.

Who would have believed that 20 years on, yes 20 years on we
are still having this debate. I’m ready to run this session again – let me know
what you think?

About Me

Owner of WiserHealth and very interested in maintaining a good work life balance for me, my clients and my family. A growing interest in politics and in particular gender politics because well being is political.